How my classes shaped up compared to my preconceived expectations differs a lot between the different classes. For example, my english class was way easier than high school english. How the class was structured made completing assignments feel very natural and my professor made the whole class feel like a close group. In contrast, my chemistry and calculus classes were much harder. I was forced to put a lot of effort into learning the material on my own because the way those professors taught was not helpful for me. My mechanics class sits in the middle of these extremes. The material was hard and new to me but how my professor structured the homework made it easy to learn. That class also included a project where I was a part of a team that had to build a truss. This experience gave me a good taste of being an engineer and I enjoyed it a lot. CPSG100 is unique when compared to my other classes. I did not expect the class to be so focused on generic science. I still think it is useful to know basic scientific principles in order to understand more complex topics. I also did not expect for the class to spend so much time talking about the negative effects of climate change. In that vein, I was expecting to hear more about what can be done about climate change but I will be learning that in the later classes anyways. The out-of-classroom activities have been really fun which is good considering I had no idea what to expect from them. I also like that I can directly connect what I am doing outside of class to the goals of SGC.
Life on campus is very different from high school. I live in Centreville Hall in a triple so I have had to get used to living in the same room as two other people. Adjusting to this hasn’t been too difficult though because I got lucky and both of my roommates are good. What I was expecting the least about college life is how much walking I have to do. In high school if I ever left a building I would be driving somewhere, but here in college I have to walk to everything. At the beginning of the year this wasn’t that bad but as the weather has gotten colder it has been tougher to have to walk everywhere. One thing I was worried about was the quality of food. In high school I had heard many things about college dining halls having terrible food but luckily that is not true here. The variety of dining halls has meant that there is almost always some food that I will enjoy. Something that I was not expecting that I have come to enjoy a lot is the bowling alley in the STAMP Student Union. In high school I enjoyed bowling but now it is so much easier for me to and I thoroughly enjoy it.
When it comes to advice my biggest tip is to prepare for the weather. The worst thing that can happen is you go out thinking that it is going to be warm and sunny and then suddenly you are caught in the rain. Besides that in terms of academic advice I would say to learn how to study. I have been caught stressing over classes because I hadn’t been taught how to properly study before and if I had known the right ways before everything would have been a lot smoother.